This invention relates to cylindrical-bodied yarn packages wherein the yarn is traverse wound in layers of helical coils on a yarn package support, more particularly it relates to an apparatus and method for shaping such packages after they are wound to improve their formation and stability. Such packages are commonly formed by windups employing a surface drive. The drive roll is operated at a constant speed thus maintaining a constant surface velocity of the driven package despite the growth of the package as the filament material is wound thereon. A cam-actuated reciprocating traverse guide may be used to lay the yarn onto the package support in layers of helical coils either directly or by means of a print roll.
When winding elastic textile yarns, such as spandex fibers of the type sold under the trademark "LYCRA", into packages in this fashion, package deformation in the form of bulges or lips on the shoulder of the package occur which appear to be related in some way to the retractability of the yarn at the reversals of the helical coils formed by the successive strokes. These lips are undesirable inasmuch as the yarn sloughs from the package during unwinding causing breaks. The solution to the problem is to reshape the shoulder of the package to eliminate the lips which are formed during windup. Currently reshaping is done by hand. An operator moves the heel of his hand around the sidewall and shoulder of the package spreading out the lips. Following this shaping operation the operator finds the free lead end of the yarn and ties it around the package surface for ease of retrieval during later processing of the package. This method of reshaping and finding free ends on elastic textile yarn packages is slow and does not provide the efficiency desired in such an operation. The efficiency of the reshaping operation is greatly improved by mechanically performing the operation through the use of an apparatus which will both reshape the shoulders of the package as well as locate the free lead end of the package.